In a rather authoritarian, sweeping effort to increase its worldwide Windows 10 install base, Microsoft has announced it will end support for operating systems older than Windows 10 on newer chipset platforms, including Intel’s Skylake, in a year and a half from now, and that Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows OS on new chipset platforms going forward in 2016.

Yesterday, the company updated its hardware support policy, which now states, “Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support. This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon. Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming 14nm Kaby Lake silicon, Qualcomm’s 14nm MSM8996 silicon (Snapdragon 820 SoC), and AMD’s upcoming 28nm Bristol Ridge APU silicon.”

In other words, if you purchase a new device later this year with an Intel Core 7000 Series (14nm Kaby Lake) CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC or AMD socket AM4-based Bristol Ridge APU, you will only be receiving official support from Microsoft for its Windows 10 operating system.

The announcement also applies to SoCs from Qualcomm, Samsung, and others that power many of the latest Windows 10 tablets and ultrabooks. Through July 17, 2017, Intel Skylake-based devices on the company's "supported list" will continue to support Windows 7, Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1. Microsoft says "during the 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends."

In the blog post, Microsoft emphasized Windows 7’s decade-old platform architecture and some of the challenges it brings for hardware manufacturers to update their drivers to support and emulate the OS.

“Windows 7 was designed nearly 10 years ago before any x86/x64 SOCs existed. For Windows 7 to run on any modern silicon, device drivers and firmware need to emulate Windows 7’s expectations for interrupt processing, bus support, and power states- which is challenging for WiFi, graphics, security, and more. As partners make customizations to legacy device drivers, services, and firmware settings, customers are likely to see regressions with Windows 7 ongoing servicing.”

Windows 7 will continue to be supported for security, reliability and compatibility through January 14, 2020 on previous generation silicon. Likewise, Windows 8.1 will receive the same support through January 10, 2023.

Microsoft has already claimed that negative side effects of using an older OS over Windows 10 are already quite tangible. “Compared to Windows 7 PCs, Intel Skylake when combined with Windows 10 enables up to 30x better graphics and 3x the battery life – with the unmatched security of Credential Guard utilizing silicon supported virtualization,” says Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group.

“Credential Guard” is Microsoft’s new virtualization-based security mechanism that stores Windows and other login credentials into a virtualized area in hardware away from the main operating system. This prevents credential attack theft techniques used in many targeted attacks from successfully obtaining any confidential user credential information in the Windows 10 Enterprise operating system. Data stored by the new “isolated LSA” environment is protected using virtualization-based security and is not accessible to the rest of the operating system.

Nevertheless, Microsoft understands that many individuals and company employees are in the market for new devices and do not necessarily want Windows 10 to begin with. As such, the company says it will publish a list of specific new Intel Skylake-based devices for 2015 and 2016 that will run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. “This approach ensures our customers can upgrade now to new devices their employees will love while preparing for a Windows 10 upgrade.”

Microsoft’s Windows operating system lifecycle support page can be found here.

Special note to our readers: Use extreme caution with Windows 10 privacy settings when upgrading to the new operating system

Microsoft employs telemetry, background data collection like never beforeWith any system upgrade to Windows 10, we always advise our readers to use extreme caution when understanding Windows 10's new user privacy settings, and to ensure that PCs installed with or upgraded to Windows 10 are thoroughly tweaked and optimized for an NSA-free, telemetry-free operating system experience.

As some of our readers already know, many of the privacy options in Windows 10 raise a huge red flag pointing right to the backend of the NSA, leaving millions of people unaware that they're basically enabling a high-profile keylogger on their PCs. For example, under "Express Settings," one of the options enabled by default is the following:

"Send typing and inking data to Microsoft to improve the recognition and suggestion platform."

In English, that basically means every key you touch on your keyboard gets sent to Microsoft and potentially the U.S. government for "improving basic Microsoft services."

In addition, there is a new telemetry system called "Asimov" which can be used to monitor the usage of any Windows 10 computer in real time. Basically, if you agree to use Windows 10, you agree to let Microsoft monitor your computer at any time, for any reason, and to share the data they gather with their trusted partners.

After the massive U.S. government surveillance leak from Edward Snowden in 2013, it's really no secret what the corporation is up to these days.

There is a short guide on the Microsoft Forum Network with six simple steps on how to completely remove all traces of background telemetry and basic data collection in Windows 10. Steps include disabling all settings in the "Settings -> Privacy" submenu, deleting a list of Scheduled Tasks through Command Prompt, changing telemetry values in the Group Policy Editor, manually disabling telemetry entries in the Registry Editor, and modifying the System32 "hosts" file to blacklist Microsoft's common "phone home" servers and IP addresses. Additionally, we also recommend running TotalDefense's free, run-once PrivacyShield utility to identify any of five major privacy settings that should always be plugged in Windows 10.

I am getting slightly annoyed. Why am I the only person in the world who is not being nagged my Microsoft to upgrade to Windows 10.

There are stories appearing about how Microsoft has increased pressure on users to upgrade to Windows 10. NeoWin says that Redmond has given it two choices, upgrade now or upgrade tonight.

Microsoft's 'Get Windows 10' feature on its older operating systems - which is intended to make it easy for users to take advantage of its free upgrade offer - was recently updated with revisions that, at first glance, appear to give users very little choice over whether to upgrade or not.

Of course when the window appears you just close it but it is rather annoying. But not to me because I have never seen it.

Yet it seems that Microsoft does not want my custom, at least on my Lenovo NUC and Asus Note book. To be fair I already tried to upgrade the NUC when Windows 10 came out and it didn’t work so I have not tried it since the updates. But the Asus should be constantly nagging me and it isn’t.

Unlike the Neowin I have no problems with Windows 10. It works rather well on my main machine particularly after I put it onto an SSD. I am in no hurry to upgrade it onto the other machines, I am just disappointed that Microsoft does not consider me worthy of hassling.

Beancounters at analyst outfit Gartner have decided that Windows 10 will eventually be the most successful of Redmond's creations.

Microsoft launched Windows 10 a little while ago, and the OS had good start – it can be found on more than 110 million devices.

Gartner predicts that Windows 10 will become the most widely installed version of Windows ever. The report states:

Windows 10 is poised to become the most widely installed version of Windows ever, following on the path of Windows XP and Windows 7 before it, according to Gartner. Gartner predicts that 50 percent of enterprises will have started Windows 10 deployments by January 2017.

Apparently several factors are driving migration. There is awareness of the end of support for Windows 7 in January 2020, strong compatibility with Windows 7 applications and devices. There is also a pent-up demand for tablet and 2-in-1 device rollouts.

The net result is that many enterprises are planning to begin pilots for Windows 10 in the first half of 2016, and to broaden their deployments in the latter part of the year.

Gartner expects that at least half of enterprises will have started some production deployments by the beginning of 2017, with an eye to completing their migrations in 2019.

Microsoft has said that it wants the operating system to power a billion devices by July 2018. BUt getting Windows 10 on the PC, tablets, the Xbox One, Phones, and HoloLens which means the OS will have a lot more devices to play with.

Of course if Microsoft pulls support for Windows 7, and eventually Windows 8 and never renames Windows 10, it will eventually become the only windows OS out there.

Latest figures show that Windows 10's meteoric growth has finally been checked, according to NetmarketShare.

The figures for August, the first full month of availability for the new OS, Windows 10 went from 0.39 percent to 5.21 percent share, jumping over Windows 8 (but not Windows 8.1).

People in the know said that the take-up of Windows 10 was going to be huge, particularly since it was easy to upgrade and free.

However, September's growth appears to have stalled. Interest in Windows 10 appears to have actually waned considerably. While Windows 10 still grew its share, it only managed a gain of 1.42 percentage points which puts it on 6.63 percent.

It looks like it will take until January for Windows 10 overtake Windows 8.x by January now. Windows 7's share is declining, but slowly, turning it into the next Windows XP. In August Windows 7 had a 57.67 percent share. In September it was on 56.53 percent. A drop of 1.14 percentage points.

Sony has warned owners of its Vaio systems not to upgrade to Windows 10 yet.

The hardware maker has admitting that the driver testing has not been completed yet despite having had plenty of warning from Microsoft.

In a message posted to its support site, Sony has told owners of its Vaio-branded systems that 'regardless of the Windows 10 upgrade availability, Sony recommends you wait to install Windows 10 on your Vaio computer.

This will give Sony the chance to complete testing for supported Vaio models.'

A schedule included with the document advises that driver and application testing will be completed in October for devices sold with Windows 8.1 preinstalled, and November for older devices shipped with Windows 8.

Those sold with Windows 7 have no schedule published and will probably have the official designation of "one of these days."

It is pretty silly for Sony to be caught out, but then the outfit is not that interested.

With sinking sales Sony left the PC market in February 2014, allowing a Japanese company to sell selected Vaio models to the local market.

But still it is interesting to note that Windows 10 does have problems with drivers, something that many people seem to be in denial about.

Windows 10 has grown faster in two weeks than its predecessor did in six months and it will probably replace the older OS in a few months.

Beancounters at StatCounter have been adding up the numbers and dividing by their shoe size and worked out that Windows 10 has been installed on an estimated 27 million machines which is 3.78 per cent of the market.

In the UK, the uptake is faster with 7.56 percent of machines updated.

If it grows at this rate there is a chance that Windows 10 will overtake Windows 8 marketshare within the first month.

Lots of users are still waiting for their upgrade, so it is pretty likely that Windows 8.x will be a swearword packed footnote in history like Vista.

It does seem that Microsoft has made a good gamble with Windows 10, however it remains to be seen what will happen when money starts to be asked for the product.

Redmond is pitching Windows 10 as software as a service so sooner or later someone is going to ask for cash, and then the trouble will begin. Microsoft is gambling that by then it will be too late to do much about it.

The fruity cargo cult, Apple, which has never been afraid of taking people's useless ideas and turning them into money, has decided to copy Microsoft's least favourite idea – killing off the desktop in Windows 8.

OS9, will not have home screen and Apple is making the same daft comments that Microsoft used when it bought in its Metro interface -- people don't want it because the interaction happens elsewhere.

Apple, like Microsoft thought that intelligent notification panels, powerful search tools, and context-specific suggestions that put relevant apps a flick away all meant that a central homepage was redundant.

Like Microsoft Apple is going to bury the home screen and make it secondary claiming that "the smartphone experience is just too fast and fluid to be pinned to a grid."

Like Windows, in its early days, the home screen was crucial to the iPhone's appeal. To someone coming from a PC, the home screen was the desktop and Start button all in one. It was so important that it got its own dedicated button. No matter what you were doing on your phone, if you pressed the thumb-sized disc below the screen, you were safely shuttled home.

Now, like Microsoft, Apple thinks that people don't want that any more. They were more inclined to use things like the multitasking tray to jump between apps instead of returning to the central hub of the home screen every time. As the accumulated pages of apps, Spotlight became a quick way to find the desired one.

What Apple is doing is having a Proactive Assistant which sounds like something an executive puts on expenses during a trip to Amsterdam's red light district. Copying Google Now's the iOS 9 will try to guess what you actually want based on what you normally do.

It will also offer a new interactive hub in the form of a personalized search panel which will sit to the left of the demoted home screen, you'll see shortcuts for contacts and apps, both filtered by context.

Of course this approach will not annoy fanboys, they will continue to claim it is super cool and good. But those who use the iPhone because it is simple and they can navigate properly might decide it is better to go back to Google. After all Windows 8 really did Microsoft some damage.

Fruity cargo cult Apple has decided that Microsoft's venerable Windows 7 needs to be expelled from its walled garden of earthly delights.

Owners of new Macs will no longer be able to install Windows 7 on their computers using Apple's Boot Camp.Apple has decided that if Apple users must use a proper operating system on their expensive gear, it should at least be the latest version –Windows 8 and eventually Windows 10.

The move was quietly announced in an amendment to Apple's Boot Camp system requirements earlier this month.

Tables at the foot of the page show that the 2015 models of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will only support the 64-bit version of Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro. Windows 7 can still be installed on older Macs, including the latest iMacs and Mac Minis.

However it is a bit of clever move. Windows 7 is still hugely popular and Windows 8 is not. Apple can say that it is supporting only the latest technology, while at the same time forcing its Windows users onto software which even makes iOS look good.

Windows 8's touch-centric Start Menu will be completely lost on Apple Macs which never bothered with touchscreens, which were pretty pointless.

On the downside though, many business users require Windows 7 to run legacy applications, which will mean that they might have to walk away from Apple Macs.

And this leads me to the nub of the problem. Apple is desperate to get into the business market, and yet it fails to understand that businesses will not upgrade as often as its consumer base. As a result when it upgrades it forgets that buisinesses can't follow.

It was a lesson that Microsoft learned with Windows XP – you cant get businesses to upgrade unless there is a compelling case for it.

Of course there are plenty of other virtualisation products that continue to support Windows 7 on Macs, including Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion, but Apple might be miffed at the loss of control.

Microsoft has stopped retail sales of Windows 8 and ended sales of some versions of Windows 7 to OEMs. Retailers cannot order more copies of Windows 8, which went on sale just over two years ago on 26 October 2012, although it will still come pre-installed on new PCs.

Windows 7, the Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate editions of the OS will no longer come pre-installed on new PCs. Manufacturers as well as retailers still have large stocks of Windows 7 PCs so it is unlikely these will die off that quick.

The end of Windows 7 will cause problems for consumers, given the fact that it still maintains a 53 percent market share, and it has less annoying quirks than Windows 8. Microsoft will continue to supply Windows 7 Professional edition to OEMs. The Redmond-based company says that it will provide one year of notice prior to the end of sale date.

Enterprise customers can still downgrade to earlier versions of the OS they have licensed.

"To use prior versions of Windows software on PCs installed with newer versions, it is possible for consumers to obtain a license for downgrade rights. These downgrade rights will vary depending on if the software was acquired via Volume Licensing, OEM, or FPP,” Microsoft said.

People have done some pretty interesting things with the first Kinect adapter when they connected it to their Windows PC. Microsoft noticed this and has wasted no time in making sure that they can carry on the tradition with a new adapter that allows the much improved Kinect for Xbox One to be connected to your Windows 8 PC.

The $49 adapter allows for connection of the Xbox One Kinect to your PC, but you will need the new second release of the Kinect SDK 2.0 to take advantage of it. The Kinect SDK 2.0 is free for the download and it allows you to access the Kinect from your own programs.

The Kinect for Xbox One was released to be sold separately recently, so the move to release the adapter for PC connection and a new version of the software development kit is really only natural.